Sevillian school; late seventeenth century.

Sevillian school; late seventeenth century.
"The presentation of Jesus in the temple".
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Presents faults in the frame.
Measurements: 80 x 103 cm; 116 x 92 cm (frame).
In this canvas the author narrates the presentation of Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem, an iconographic theme very repeated throughout the history of art, within the cycle of the life of Jesus. Luke the Evangelist (Luke 2:22-40) narrates the episode, in which Mary and Joseph brought the Child to the temple and, according to custom, offered two turtledoves as a sacrifice. According to the Jewish law of the time, every first-born child was to be consecrated to the Lord, in remembrance of the slaughter of the innocents. In the temple was Simeon, an old man who was reputed to be a righteous man. When he saw the Child, he was convinced that he was acting under the impulse of the Spirit, and he took him in his arms and blessed him, saying the "Nunc dimitis" or Canticle of Simeon. This wise old man was a devout Jew to whom the Holy Spirit had promised that he would not die until he had seen the Savior. The scene is completed by the prophetess Anna, who lived in the temple. Witnessing this event, she began to speak of the Child to all who awaited the redemption of Jerusalem. The oldest preserved plastic version of this episode is found in the mosaic of the triumphal arch of the church of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, from the 5th century, where the four protagonists are already depicted. Usually the scene is represented with Mary offering the Child to Simeon, as we see here. In other versions Simeon holds the Child, while Mary makes the offering of the doves. Almost always appears, to one side or in a corner, the prophetess Anna, and sometimes also St. Joseph, here in the lower right zone.